The Defense Minister further educated the President by reminding him of how the spending is done with NATO and their UN peacekeeping missions:

“Defence spending also goes into UN peacekeeping missions, into our European missions and into our contribution to the fight against Isis terrorism,” he said.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has commented on Trump’s tweet as well by releasing data for their defense spending, which is set to rise by 1.4 billion euros to 38.5 billion euros in 2018 – a figure that is projected to represent 1.26 per cent of economic output.

He chose to educate Trump on sensible security policies in an interview with “Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung,” as well:

A sensible security policy is not just buying tanks, driving defense spending to insane heights, and escalating the arms race….A reasonable policy means crisis prevention, stabilization of weak states, economic development and the fight against hunger, climate change, and water scarcity,”

It should also be noted that Germany’s spending ratio for defense stood at 1.18 per cent in 2016.

During the meeting, the Chancellor confirmed their commitment to the two percent military spending goal. This was already in the works long before Trump started pushing for members of NATO to increase efforts to meet a 2 percent defense spending target during his campaign.

Ivo Daalder, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, in obvious disbelief at the audacity of the Trump’s tweet, chose to educate him on how finances and accounts are handled by NATO in a series of tweets that are sure to grab his attention.

1/ Sorry, Mr. President, that’s not how NATO works. The US decides for itself how much it contributes to defending NATO. pic.twitter.com/8svkzRBEQb